Luckily, the officious AI hadn’t seen fit to call the captain. Fleming didn’t seem the type to tolerate one of his officers going on a bender on the ship. Not even a temporary officer like her. She walked into the clinic and did a double take at how many people were waiting. Day three of her crui...
You can handle a headache, even one that feels like your brain is slowly beating itself to a pulp inside your skull. A guard interrupted Nate’s stern internal lecture, poking him with a razor-sharp, gleaming spear tip. A thin line of red blood trickled down Nate’s arm, mingling with the dried re...
Mark Denaltieri could fulfill his employer’s expectations and rescue Princess Alessandra from her kidnapper. Not that it would be a long-term rescue, since he was also being paid to deliver her into the hands of people she hated. A real “out of the supernova into the black hole” situation. He’d w...
A night of shivering in the unheated cell had left her weak and headachy, with stiff knees, but she was determined not to let the tribe break her will. “You look more like a slave than a princess now,” said the rough voice of the chief wife. “Come here, girl.” Clutching the scratchy blanket like ...
Voices saying angry things above her head. Hands pulling and poking at her. Leave me alone, she tried to say, but her voice was a husky rasp with no power to communicate. As she was sinking back into unconsciousness, a cascade of cold water crashed over her. Am I still in the river? Panicking, ...
Meg, who was in the chair next to the couch, drowsing, didn’t realize at first her passenger had died. The venom had worked its way through Sharmali’s entire body, turning all her veins and arteries a startling black and she’d been breathing shallowly for most of the evening. Meg briefly consider...
Tyema half hoped the event would be canceled after the dunking in the Nile, but word from her hostess came early in the morning by special courier how much Nidiamhet anticipated the gathering, and especially rejoiced in having Tyema as her special guest. Queen Ashayet was not attending this event...
Where am I going? How did I come to be in this tunnel? She contemplated the passageway filled with mist and bathed in blue light. She stumbled and stopped, one hand on the cold stone wall to steady herself. She was dressed in fine robes, bedecked with jewels. A thin gold circlet held her hair. Ri...
Johnny at the rear, the soldiers marched in the direction of the pirate stronghold. Sure enough, about an hour into the hike, a storm struck. Fortunately for his companions, he’d marked a small cave formation in his study of the terrain and led them to shelter there, before a flash flood came alo...